My Design Philosophy

I need to decide what I would like to include in my magazine and what layout I would like from my magazine.
The four F's:

• Formula-the articles and features that go in magazines, they should remain the same format every month. This is not something I will be able to explicitly apply to my magazine as I will only be creating one edition of it, but this will be something I will consider depending on what type of the articles I would like to include.
• Format -the design and layout of the magazine and the general appearance. This is something I will definitely need to look at and think about when designing the magazine, and is something I will begin to explore in this post. 
• Frame- the margins and gutters, although this doesn't seem important, it does help with the general layout of the magazine and make it look professional.
• Function- what is the magazine for? this must me made clear.

Not only do I need to look at the Four F's I also need to look at:

• Retro vs. Modern-modern is my preferred design, however retro design creates quite a different and interesting appearance
• Minimal vs. Cluttered design-I would definitely say I prefer a minimal design, and this would work best with my style of magazine. Cluttered designs appear to work for pop artists.
• Balance- It it important in my opinion for the balance to be even so that sell lines are positioned around a main image. However I am willing to look at different layouts and see how they work with my genre,
• Conventional vs. original- Although some designs like Shindig! look quite eye catching and original, for my coursework I think it is important to be conventional. But I will look into developing some conventions. 
• Use of Colour- All the colours used in the magazine need to go with one another, however also need to contrast so that sell lines and other features stand out and are eye catching.  
• Consistency vs. inconsistency-It is extremely important to be consistent throughout my magazine, if they style or overall representations change the reader will be confused and the magazine wouldn't ne as successful. 
• Effect of genre/ideology on design

Decisions about my music magazine

After looking at different music magazines and researching topics and ideologies related to different genres of music, I have decided to create a magazine that would feature acoustic or indie artists. This magazine will be based on designs and structures of NME and Q. My target audience will be people of a similar age 16-24 this is because they will relate to some of the people in the magazine. The target market will be smaller than these larger magazines like NME and Q because it focuses on two particular genres whilst they have a broader range.

I would like my front cover to be quite simple and sophisticated whilst still attracting the attention of the audience. Due to wanting a basic and not too overcrowded cover I will be using one person as my model as oppose to a group/band and it must be a plain background to draw attention to the sell lines. Or the background must be quite simple as to not distract the audience. The title of my magazine needs to be related to the genre and themes of the magazine, as it will be one of the firsts things that attract an audience. This title must be displayed in a way that can be used every issue of the magazine in order to establish a house style that the potential audience could relate to.

Examples of Double Page Spreads I Like

These two double page spreads are amongst the designs that seem to grab my attention and make me want to read them. I think that the title of the magazine looks good when it fills a large amount of the page, this may be even more than half of the page. Also these show that the image/images should fill a whole page of the double page spread.

Wide Audiences vs. Niche Audiences

When deciding on a target audience of a magazine, TV show or any other form of media, there are two different outcomes; a mass audience or a small audience. Mass audiences are for media forms that appeal to a large group of people and maybe have a broad subject/genre, whilst niche audiences are aimed at a small specific group of people which is significantly lower than the mass audiences.

Wide Audience: Case Study - Q

Q magazine is aimed at more mature music lovers and cover recent artists without forgetting the older ones. They cover a diverse range of music genres to interest all. This allows them to build up a larger audience as they are covering more of a variety meaning more people are likely to be interested in different parts of the magazine so buy it to read that part. The National Readership Survey website shows that 476,000 adults read Q magazine which in comparioson to other music magazines on the site, is the highest value. They must base their ideologies on all the music genres so the magazine is not so specific to a certain genre, but holds a sophisticated house style.

Their cover model ranges from celebrities from the pop world like Cheryl Cole and those from the indie scene like the Artic Monkeys.



Niche Audience- SHINDIG!

Shindig is a magazine aimed at people who love music from the 60's like mod, garage rock, psych and freakbeat. This is a clearly much smaller than the market of Q magazine and the audience have to source the magazine from a particular music shop or even the internetm, whereas magazines aimed at a mass audience can be found in supermarkets and most newsagents.Technology has allowed music magaines to be aimed at niche audiences because of desktop publishing software things can be created that look quite professional at a reasonably low cost. Also this allows a small group of people to be employed by a magazine as there is the use of technology that has developed. Due to SHINDIG! being aimed at a very small audience it allows the ideologies and representations of the few genres to be shown, so it will only ever attract those interested in that type of music.

The readership of every edition of this magazine is approximately 26,000 which in comparion to the 476,000 people that read Q, this is a very small market.

 

Intertextuality

There are many recurring ideas in all different industries and there is the idea that 'it's all been done before'. This idea comes from all different ways for people to use a recurring theme, post modernism, bricolage and parodies.

Tropes are things that are repeated over time and eventually form a common convention. A trope maker is the initiator of the trope, an inverted trope is when the trop is reversed so the opposite is used or a subverted trope is when they are attacking the trope and challenging it.
Memes are ideas that aren't copied, like tropes, they are thought of at the same time.

Tropes are sometimes the representations that have built up about a certain thing, but in terms of music it is very closely related to the ideologies of the genre. For example pop music has tropes that it is fun, non explicit, whilst rock artists are said to be rebellious and all the tropes seem to reflect these.

Target Audience

Different genres of music

Some different genres of music magazine:

• Garage Rock- this is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in America and Canada.
• Jazz - this is a musical style that originated in the beginning of the 20th Century
• Rock- this is heavily influenced by rhythm and blues, and country music and became popular in the UK and US
• Pop- this is a genre of popular music that derived from rock and roll.
• Acoustic-music that primarily uses instruments to produce sound entirely.
• Indie- artists that are not signed to commercial record labels.
• Indie Rock- alternative rock music with artists not signed to commercial record labels. 
• Hip-Hop- a style that consists of stylised rhythmic music, that generally involve rapping.
• Beat boxing- a form of vocal percussion.
• Dance- music solely made to facilitate or accompany dancing. 
• Dub-Step- a genre of electronic dance music originated in South London.
• Metal- a genre of rock music, with blues rock and psychedelic rock 
• Folk- music that involves traditional and contemporary folk music

Technology

Technology

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Mood Board

This is my mood board, I created this to enable me to recognise typical looks, layouts and structures of my chosen genre. My mood board presents Indie and Acoustic artists. I choose to include artists typical to the genre as it will allow me to style and present my model in a similar way, I also included some pre-existing magazine covers with these artists on the front as I can see how the colour schemes link and the structure. In addition on this mood board I have images of album covers from artists as I can see the difference between these and other genre covers. All of these give me a hint as to the ideologies of indie and acoustic music and how they are typically represented.

Conventions of Front Cover and Double Page Spread

All magazines have different house styles, but most magazines follow the same conventions. These need to be followed when making my magazine because the magazines I have studied are successful and going against these conventions could prove difficult and not be successful. 

These are some of the conventions of a front cover:

• Title- this is a word or short phrase that sums up the magazine and is easily recognised by the target audience.
• Sell Line- these are positioned differently depending on the house style and the layout of the magazine. 
• Image- there is always one main image that is usually connected to the biggest sell line. Sometimes there are other images on the front cover that are related to the other sell lines.
• Barcode- this is very small and usually in a discrete position along with the issue number and the price.
• Boost- most magazine use their main headline as their boost. Whilst other will use the advertising of a free gift as there boost. 
• Background- this is usually a plain background so it doesn't distract from the other content of the front cover. It is simple and easy to replicate.
• Colour Scheme- this is generally a 4 part colour scheme.

These are some of the conventions of a double page spread:

• Title and billboard- these are at the top of the page and mainly spread across the double page. 
• Image- this image is typically quite large and in magazines I have looked at they occupy a page of the article. 
• Pull out quote- generally used in all magazine articles to attract the readers attention to particular parts of the article or make them read the whole article. 
• Colour scheme- the colours used are not randomly selected they are generally part of a 4 or 3 part colour scheme, which makes the article more coherant. It seems the more unusual the older the audience the more simple the colour scheme.
• Captions- all the images usually have captions on them, so the audience feel as though they can relate to person featured in the article

Target Audience, Ideology and Representation

Every magazine that is published has a different target audience, whether this be a niche audience or a wide spread audience, this is particularily apparant in music magazines. Their are hundreds of different genres of music, some more popular than others, the magazines reflect the tone and audience of the specific genre. The way information is displayed through the magazine appeals to the target audience.

The front cover reveals a lot about representations of the genre of music, through the use of graphlogy:

• Font - the size and the style
• Image- the angle and appearacne of the model
• Colour Scheme

These are examples of front covers from music magazines:

Top of the Pops is clearly aimed at young girls between 8-14. The genre of the music, pop, is clearly stated in the title. The title is pink and glittery which is typically a girls colour and fits into the targe audience of the magazine. The font on the front cover varies with both serif and sans serif being used, the sans serif font of the title shows it is modern and simple. The colour scheme of the magazine is pink, red and purple, although red and pink usually clash, in this case it works and makes the heading and tag lines stand out. Generally this magazine shows typical conventions of a pop magazine, as it's target audience would find this very eyecatching and will draw them in.

Q is a magazine aimed at an older more mature audience, whilst

still mantaining a wide coverage of genres. The front page is very simple and not overcrowded, unlike the Top of the Pops. This shows that the magazine have recognised their target audience and that they prefer structure whilst a younger audience prefers colourful and exciting. Although it is aimed at an older audience they are maintaining a modern approach by using a sans serif font throughout the front cover.

NME magazine has generally a rock/indie audience, with me alternative artists. This means automatically their demographic audience is much smaller so they can focus on the music and not the sales. This follows a three part colour scheme and the yelllow stands out against the darker background. The red and the yellow clash which would appeal to the target audience because they prefer to 'be different' and to not follow a crowd. There are very little sell lines around the front cover, suggesting that people that read the magazine will know what it will include.

All these magazines present ideologies about a group of people. Ideology is a set of beliefs a person or group holds and all music magazines hold these different ideologies, which affects the way they are represented. For example a magazine for an older audience of sophisticated music content would not generally have a image of Justin Beiber on the front, as it does not link with the ideologies of the audiences.

In the example of 'Top of the Pop's' there are several ideologies of pop music represented these are:

• Girly Colours
• Non violent imagery
• No sexual content
• Gossip

In the example of 'Q' the ideologies of mature musical interest shown are:

• Simple and Neat
• Varied interests musically

In NME the ideologies of alternative music are:

• Different (colour clash and image)
• Quite loud

Rock

• Loud
• Sexual Content

Hip Hop

• Drug and Alcohol Use

Textual Analysis of Q

Textual Analysis of Music Magazine 3 - Q on Prezi

Textual Analysis of Top of the Pops

Textual Analysis of Music Magazine 1-Top of the Pops on Prezi

Research Methods

There are many different types of research methods that can be categorised into four seperate groups.

• Primary Research-this is research that you carry out yourself. Examples of this research is .... Advantages of using primary research is, 
• Secondary Research- this is using someone else's research or other people's resources. 
• Qualitative Research- small scale research and involves longer answers.
• Quantitative Research- large scale research involving numbers.

History of Top of the Pops

Brief History
Top of the Pops magazine is published monthly. It was launched in 1995 alongside a revamp of Top of the Pops TV show. They originally marketed it as the missing link between Smash Hits and NME, but the format gradually changed and included less music content and more content suitable for young girls. Although the TV show was cancelled the magazine is still published monthly.

Typical Content
You would expect to see chart information, star gossip, quizzes, competitions, posters and fashion and beauty advice. Typical articles would include 'Gossip2Go' and 'Your Problems Solved' with exclusive interviews with celebrities that would interest the target audience. The competitions are used to entice the audience into reading the magazine and they did this by advertising it on the packaging.

Typical Readers
There is no information about sales and readerships on the National Readership Survey (www.nrs.co.uk). So with other research I have seen that the typical target audience are 6-14 year old girls, which is reflected by the content of the magazine. The music interest of pop fit into this target audience as ideologies show that pop is innocent, sweet music that includes no swear words or rude language, whilst some pop artists like Rihanna and Katy Perry are challenging this, it is mainly still correct.

Magazine House-Style

• The title is typically pink and is at the top of the page and spreads across the page
• Several other images are displayed on the cover as well as the main image
• The sell lines are randomly placed
• The boost of the magazine is generally a quote from an article

Who produces and publishes the magazine?

Top of the Pops is produced and published by BBC Magazine.

History of NME Magazine

Brief History of NME
NME is also known as New Music Express. The first edition of NME was published in March 1952 and published weekly, after Maurice Kinn bought the Musical Express and Accordion Weekly and relaunched it. It was initially a non glossy tabloid music newspaper and moved to a magazine during the 80's. NME was the first British paper to have a singles chart and in the 70's it was the best selling British music newspaper. It supported a number of up and coming artists, and in the 90's started featuring indie artists. In 2008 the magazine had a redesign to make the magazine aimed at an older audience with less pop music and a more authoritative tone.

Typical Content
Typically NME is around 70 pages long and features rock artists recently including indie rock also they feature guitar bands. The magazine includes 'Track of the Week', 'The NME Chart'. Also you would expect to see reviews on music albums from new tracks and artists of the week, in addition you would see interviews with bands or artists such as 'Lana Del Ray' and 'The Maccabees'. Towards the back of NME you would typically find a gig guide and tour dates for featured artists and a competitions.

Typical Reader
According to National Readership Survey (www.nrs.co.uk) the typical age would be between 15-44 with 253,000 of them reading the magazine. This is a very broad age range, but only a smaller range within this group may actually buy this magazine. Also National Readership Survey shows us that only 86,000 women read the magazine and 167,000 males read it, showing that the target audience is males between 15-44. As the magazine includes new music artists and indie bands, it is quite a niche market making the magazine about the music and not about the money.

Magazine House-style

• The title is always on the left hand side 
• The main image is a mid shot  and they look directly at the camera
• Only a few other images on the page alongside the main image
• The boost is always about the model on the front cover
• The sell lines are more structured
• Always a 3 part colour scheme

Who produces and distributes NME?

NME is produced and distributed by IPC Media, UK's leading publisher of consumer magazines.

Main Task

Now I have completed my preliminary task, I am able to focus on the main task. For this task I must create a front cover, contents page and a double page article for a music magazine I have created. In order to do this I must research all different genres of music and look at pre-existing magazines to create a conventinal music magazine.

Prelim Task - Contents Page